ME by Melia hotel

The Middle East’s first ME by Melia hotel was designed by the Iraqi-British architect, and is part of the Dh2.5 billion Opus project commissioned in 2008 by local developer Omniyat.

Building of the Opus project, in the Burj Khalifa district, is now more than halfway to completion.

“The hotel will feature Michelin star restaurants, lounges and cafes across an area of 250,000 square feet, with entertainment options selected from the best in the Middle East, New York, Miami, London and Las Vegas,” said Mahdi Amjad, Omniyat’s executive chairman and chief executive.

“These images convey the remarkably inventive quality of Zaha’s work – expressing a sculptural sensibility that reinvents the balance between solid and void, opaque and transparent, interior and exterior.”

Combining innovative design concepts and engineering with materials of the highest quality, Ms Hadid designed a sequence of dramatic event spaces for the hotel, of which the interiors express her investigations into the concepts of fluidity and of seamless spatial flow.

“You always expect to be surprised by Zaha Hadid’s designs, but the renderings for the Opus building and ME Dubai go beyond what we could ever have anticipated,” said Gabriel Escarrer, the vice chairman and chief executive of Melia Hotels International. “There’s no doubt that ME Dubai will raise the bar for Dubai’s hotel supply.”

The Opus, scheduled to open in 2016, will also include serviced apartments.